PRACTICAL BOOK OF GARDEN ARCHITECTURE 



building, with a coat of paint and careful joining 

 to make them weather-proof. An English method, 

 of ridge finish, may easily be followed by thatching 

 with very short straw on approaching the ridge, and 

 then using long bundles of carefully selected straw 

 for laying first lengthwise, and then crosswise, over 

 the roof angle, from one side to the other. These 

 rainproof layers are then secured by narrow strips 

 of wood, extending all along the ridge. In England, 

 these strips are split hazel rods and are known as 

 sways. Smaller split rods, bent hairpin shape, are 

 used to keep the lengthwise rods in place. 



For the summer-houses, tea rooms and well 

 houses that are to be finished in fanciful Japanese 

 effects, various forms of tiles are used. These are 

 closely joined along the ridge pole, with a layer of 

 mortar and chopped straw beneath. 



To form a still more strictly Japanesque effect, a 

 long ridge pole may extend the entire length of the 

 building, with its edge projecting beyond the end 

 gables, and then wrought in a quaint upward curve, 

 with one of the many ornamental attachments com- 

 mon to Japanese architecture. The curved adorn- 

 ments readily may be patterned after types studied 

 in pictures of Japanese buildings, and they will give 

 a light, buoyant, oriental appearance to the roof, 

 that might otherwise seem clumsy and top-heavy. 



284 



